Watto: I’m still getting used to the lads
HUDDERSFIELD Giants coach Ian Watson was a happy man after a last-gasp drop goal from full-back Lee Gaskell enabled his side to break their duck in the Betfred Super League with a nailbiting win over Leeds.
“It feels good,” said the head coach, who had overseen four straight league defeats at the start of his first season in charge side the lead and extended it 50 seconds into the second half with his second try.
Full-back Gaskell turned defence into attack with a break from his own 20-metre area and Sezer had enough pace to finish off from the halfway line.
The captain was wide with the conversion, but made amends with a penalty four minutes later to stretch his side’s lead to 12-4. The Giants thought they had scored again when replacement hooker Adam O’Brien went over from dummy half, but the try was disallowed for an obstruction by second rower Kenny Edwards.
Leeds had another let-off after 54 minutes when centre Ricky Leutele, on his home debut, broke through the first line of defence to get Luke Yates charging for the line, but the Australian prop lost control of the ball on the line.
The misses began to look costly when the Rhinos hit back through winger Ash Handley, who finished off a break by Sutcliffe and the try was converted by substitute Rhyse
Martin, who levelled the scores five minutes later with a 40-metre penalty.
Sutcliffe was wide with two drop-goal attempts and Sezer also failed with a one-pointer, while Giants had another try disallowed, this time Josh Jones denied by an offside call from Gaskell’s high kick.
The frenetic action continued when Sutcliffe’s third drop-goal attempt struck the crossbar and bounced over six minutes from the end to break the deadlock, but Sezer quickly levelled with a
It was important to get off the mark and get some points on the board.
“I don’t get nervous, I keep my emotion out of it, but when their drop goal bounced in off the crossbar, I thought it was going to be one of those days.
“It was important to come through that because Huddersfield have had a lot of close defeats, especially against Leeds, and to get across the line snap one-pointer after Leutele had regained possession from the re-start.
Leeds had another chance to win it in normal time after O’Brien lost possession in his own 20-metre area, but Sutcliffe was wide with another dropgoal attempt.
The game seemed destined to enter extra-time when Leeds conceded a penalty for a ball steal and that presented an opportunity for Gaskell to land the winning point from 40 metres out. is a really good sign. It probably should have been more comfortable in the end, especially after building an eightpoint lead. We needed to manage the game a little bit better from there.
“We’ve still got things to work on. It’s going to be an ongoing process for a while because the players are still getting used to me and I’m still getting used to the players.”